Empty Stomach
by Japanese Teeth
Summary: A brief account of Charlotte's story, as told from her own point of view.


Obviously, most of this is based on speculation; if it doesn't strictly adhere to canon, call it artistic license.

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Charlotte was hungry.

She had been hungry for as long as she could remember. It wasn't very far back that she could remember, at least not clearly. There were only vague images; bright white hallways, squeaking wheels, beeping boxes with flashing lights. It was all mixed with the ugly smell of cleaning solution.

She could see herself lying in a bed, covered in white sheets. She could see her arm struggle to lift itself up, only to flop uselessly against the sheets. Bits of hair stuck to the pillowcase as she settled herself. She was still hungry.

She could eat well enough, but it never stayed down for long. Not long enough to be worth the trouble. There were women filing in and out of the room, bringing her new sheets, and spraying something from canisters to cover the smell. It was only exchanging one horrible scent for another.

What she really wanted was cheese. The one thing that would be worth all the retching and gagging that would inevitably result. But she never had any. There was a voice in her head, bouncing around, telling her that cheese wasn't good for her, that she could have a lollipop instead. There was even more hair stuck to the pillow now.

Now it was dark, the room lit only by blinking lights from all the machines that she was wired to. And now there was a white face with red eyes staring at her. And another voice in her head telling her that she would be able to eat all the cheese that she wanted.

Now it was light again. She could lift her arm. The people who were always coming and going were very happy, and no one noticed that she had gotten a ring from somewhere, and all the voices said that she could eat cheese again.

There were dark patches, but it was never as dark as it had been. Whenever it got dark she would take her ring and there would be flashes of brightness, and then everything would be light again, and she could go home and eat some cheese. She liked the bright times more, but the darkness never seemed to last too long.

But then there was a brightness that she didn't like. The white hallways were back again. This time she didn't see herself in the bed, it was someone else. She couldn't remember who but she knew that she would rather be back in the bed then have them here. Whoever that person was struggled to lift their arms and they were leaving hair on the pillows again and here came those women with new sheets after the meal and there were so many machines and boxes with little blinking lights all over them and she thought that they were probably very hungry and they couldn't eat cheese either.

Maybe that white face with red eyes would be there again. But it wasn't, and then all of the blinking lights started blinking faster, and then there were all those people who were always coming and going and this time they weren't happy and they were rolling the bed somewhere down that bright hallway. The room was empty except for that ugly smell.

Then the darkness came back, and not even the blinking lights of those boxes, or the bright white lights in the hallway could get through it. It hadn't gotten light again after that. And all she could do was curl up and try to forget that she was hungry and couldn't have cheese anymore again.

There were sounds nearby now which meant that people were coming and going again but this time it wasn't those people in the white coats, it was just some girls. So she uncurled herself in the darkness and there were flashes of light, and she hadn't seen light in such a long time, and she was still hungry. The flashes of light were hurting her. She could see where they were coming from.

Charlotte was hungry.

There was nothing else to eat. It wasn't cheese, but there was something there and now that she had taken a bite the flashes had stopped and weren't hurting her anymore. There wasn't any cheese but there was still something to eat and she was hungry even though she had eaten all of it.

There was something else there. She tried to take a bite of it, but it wasn't there any more. There was something in her mouth. Charlotte could feel the light in her stomach, and it hurt, and there were more flashes, and this time they were inside her and that made the light hurt even more. The light was getting stronger now, and the darkness was fading, and she could feel the light filling her and she wasn't empty anymore and the darkness was finally fading and Charlotte was finally no longer hungry, finally filled with light.

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So yeah, this is obviously very experimental. I figured I'd try to get inside the head of a witch, and knowing how they get to that point, it's obviously not a fun ride. The sort of broken sentence structure and run-ons are intentional (gasp!), mainly because I was trying to demonstrate that being a witch entails not being in full possession of one's mental faculties; having been consumed by despair and whatnot. I figured that if Faulkner can pull this kind of thing in _The Sound and the Fury_, I should be able to at least experiment with it.

For those who are curious about where I got the idea, there was somewhat rampant speculation on Charlotte's backstory, and one of the ideas that came up is that she was a cancer patient (apparently some forms of chemotherapy mean you can't eat cheese, and someone made the connection). I didn't come up with the theory, but I think it was widespread enough that I could co-opt it more my own use here.

Anyway, reviews are welcome. I'm curious as to what everybody thinks of the writing style here.

Thanks for reading.


End file.
